Sex Discrimination in the City

So, I packed my bags, bundled it all into my ever reliable Suzuki swift, and off I popped up the M56 to my new home. Ever the independent little soul, I had made the leap of faith which required me living on the outskirts of a new city with a very distant, far off relative (complete stranger) for 8 weeks, travelling home every few days.

But this isn't going to be a post about me, and nor is it really a post about sex discrimination in the city (sorry - I'm just studying discrimination under employment law and happen to be located in a city)  and finally, its not really a post about the far off distant relative woman and her crazy dog Hector - even though they warrant a story of their own.

Its about how the city makes you feel. Large enough that it has a gravitational pull of its own, luring you down side streets and into the metropolis of glass, steel and of course, gloomy grey concrete and brick. Manchester is, after all, a post industrial graveyard brought back to life by the masses of scurrying people, crowded like ants on the top of a dropped lollipop.

The city, be it Glasgow, Paris, Amsterdam or New York, has an unbelievable power to do three things. Firstly, I believe it makes us feel deceptively independent - there are bars, there are shops, there are people, there are trains, there are buses, there are taxis - you can go anywhere, do anything, meet anyone. That or you can get hopelessly lost and end up on a street corner with anxiety desperately trying to get hold of your mum back home. But in all seriousness, cities have a sky that never seems to end, it's easy for your optimism to creep up to the level of the high rise buildings that surround you.

Secondly, the city makes you lonely. Those big buildings and bright lights can fill you with warmth and optimism, but on a bad day those big buildings are empty and cold, and those flashing lights are false and far away. The city is a mysterious, ambiguous thing, an urban jungle where you can make friends and live happily ever after, or fall victim to evil predators. Cities can sometimes feel so false, like an illusion, pretty to watch, but if you reach out and touch it, it's never really as it seems.

Thirdly, and most importantly, cities inspire me. They are the central hub of activity, growth, diversity. People that walk the streets from all cultures, nationalities, you see the introverts, the extroverts, the artists and the wallflowers. As a writer, I find it easy to read people, like inside-out books where the content in their character is splayed about their bodies, people in cities amaze me. The way they dress, move, talk, walk and eat. Not only that, but the smells (good, bad and ugly) and the heat, even on some winter days there is still a smog about the streets of the city, a think opaque cloud that lingers on your skin and in your hair.

For me, also, cities remind me of how much of a country girl I really am, I need green open spaces, the azure sky, the emerald sea, the need to have wind in my hair and sand on my feet, but I enjoy the injection of chaos, life, diversity and intrigue that a city brings to me, the possibilities as endless as the narrow streets.